Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Chapter from the Quran

If you look at the Chronological Order of the Qur’an, you can see the last chapter is called Nasr. Every chapter has a name. In the traditional order, Nasr is the 110th chapter. But it was really the 114th; the last one “revealed” to Mohammad. He died 80 days later. The last chapter doesn’t say much. It’s just three verses basically saying “When Allah has achieved victory and conquered lots of people and when they are becoming Muslims in great numbers, praise Allah and ask for forgiveness.” That’s about it.

But if you look up the second to last chapter, called Taubah (which means “Ultimatum”), you will find it says a great deal about non-Muslims. In the traditional chapter order, this is chapter 9. Here are a few choice verses:

9:5 Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.

9:6 Those who submit and convert to Islam will be treated well. (Those who don’t submit will be killed. See previous verse.)

9:7-9 Don’t make treaties with non-Muslims. They are all evildoers and should not be trusted.

9:11 Treat converts to Islam well, but kill those who refuse to convert (see 9:5).

9:12-14 Fight the disbelievers! Allah is on your side; he will give you victory.

9:23 Don’t make friends with your disbelieving family members. Those who do so are wrong-doers.

9:29 Fight against Christians and Jews “until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.”

9:33 The “Religion of Truth” (Islam) must prevail, by force if necessary, over all other religions.

9:41 Fight for Allah with your wealth and whatever weapons are available to you.

9:42 Those who refuse to fight for Allah (claiming they are unable) are liars who have destroyed their souls.

9:73 Fight the disbelievers and hypocrites. Be harsh with them. They are all going to hell anyway.

9:81-83 Those who refuse to give their wealth and lives to Allah will face the fire of hell.

9:85 Those who refuse to fight for Allah will be treated (along with their children) as unbelievers.

9:111 Believers must fight for Allah. They must kill and be killed. Allah will reward them for it.

9:123 Fight disbelievers who are near you, and let them see the harshness in you.

This is Allah’s “last word” on tolerance and peace toward non-Muslims. If nothing else up to this point had abrogated the tolerant verses, the above verses completely wipe out every last positive verse in the Quran for non-Muslims. And Muslims take the latter words of the Prophet as more important than the earlier words.

The translations above are based on the Skeptics Annotated Quran: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/int/long.html